1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motor vehicle roof with two covers which, in the closed position, close a roof opening and are arranged in succession viewed in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle and roughly at the height of the roof contour, the front cover being displaced to the rear, so that at least part of its lengthwise extension is located above the rear cover, into the open position for clearing a front roof opening section and in this open position, being supported by means of laterally arranged support levers which are each coupled, on the one hand to the rear cover area, and on the other hand, are guided in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle in a guide rail located underneath the roof contour.
2. Description of Related Art
A roof of the initially mentioned type is known, for example, from German Patent DE 197 13 347 C1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,803. In this known motor vehicle roof, there is a front cover which can be raised at its rear edge by means of a raising lever for opening and then can be moved above the fixed motor vehicle roof, specifically over a fixed roof window which is located in the rear roof area, the movable cover, at its rear edge area, being supported by means of laterally arranged support levers which are each coupled at one end to the rear edge area of the cover and at the other end are guided in a guide rail which is located underneath the roof contour, on either side of the fixed roof window there being a respective seal arrangement which is formed from two seals which are separated from one another when the front cover is raised and displaced by the support levers which emerge upward.
Even if in this known motor vehicle roof, provides stable support of the cover in the opened state in which it has been displaced to the rear, passage of the support lever through the seal arrangement or partial displacement of the seals by the moving support levers is associated with a host of disadvantages.
First of all, the seal arrangement formed from the two seals which adjoin one another for sealing the gap between the fixed roof window and the adjacent fixed areas of the motor vehicle roof is comparatively complex. Costs must be borne for two separate parts and their installation. Furthermore, the visual appearance of the vehicle is adversely affected by the execution of the seal arrangement from two seals which are located next to one another. Additionally, for reliable sealing in the closed state and at the same time reliable operation of the cover opening process, comparatively precise matching of the gap dimension between the two adjoining seals is necessary. Finally, even with careful matching of this critical gap size, more or less considerable mechanical wear of the two seals by the support lever which travels on it with friction and gradual, irreversible deformation of the two seals are inevitable, so that over the course of time leaks in the motor vehicle roof can occur.
German Patent DE 101 39 349 C1 describes a seal arrangement for a guide gap for lengthwise guidance of a support lever arrangement which passes through the guide gap, the particular feature of which resides in that, in order to prevent the aforementioned problems, at least one of the two seals is formed by an essentially rigid seal strip which is pre-tensioned by spring means relative to the other seal, which is sealed against the assigned edge of the guide gap, and which is movably supported overall transversely to the lengthwise direction of the guide gap. This known seal arrangement, compared to conventional seal arrangements with two elastic seal profiles, offers mainly the advantage that the opening of the seal gap for passage of the support lever arrangement no longer takes place by deformation of the seal profiles, but by the seal strip being displaced laterally. However, the disadvantage of this seal arrangement is the construction cost for implementation of the pre-tensioning of the spring and the displacement of the seal strip sideways.